Box Scraper Box blade vs rear blade+front teeth

[johnandcaren]

OK, I'm a newbee and about to purchase a compact tractor, either Kubota B series or New Holland Boomer.

Anyway, dealer is telling me not to get a box blade, but that I'll be much better off with a rear blade for smoothing and to use the tooth add on to the FEL.

Good idea or bad idea.

Purpose: I need to level out about 3 acres that is rolling (not dramatically) plus do some drainage / ditch work.

Tks for comments.

 

[Danner]

IMHO, a box blade is much better for leveling ground, cutting ditches, and grading driveways, etc. than a rear blade.

Using my rear blade on anything but dry loose material always frustrated the heck out of me. Using the box blade always gets the job done for me.

 

[Nick359]

I have both a rear and a box blade. After I got the box blade, the rear blade was only used for clearing snow. I got the box blade used on Craigslist. I have no problems pulling a 5 foot with a JD755 ag tires.

 

[Combustix]

What are you trying to level? Part of my field was uneven with dips and ruts. Box blade with the scarifiers set all the way down for several passes will rip up the grass and get you down to good dirt, then raise teeth and let the box do the rest, Also had to use on buddys driveway, was extremely compacted and the teeth needed to dig it up before leveling, would never had been able to do it with just a blade. Though don't forget your landscape rake, and drag mat.

 

[deepNdirt]

OK, I'm a newbee and about to purchase a compact tractor, either Kubota B series or New Holland Boomer.

Anyway, dealer is telling me not to get a box blade, but that I'll be much better off with a rear blade for smoothing and to use the tooth add on to the FEL.

Good idea or bad idea.

Purpose: I need to level out about 3 acres that is rolling (not dramatically) plus do some drainage / ditch work.

Tks for comments.

I think what the dealer was advising you was! being you have a FEL perhaps you could install teeth onto the bucket and do what I box scrape would do, and if you need to scrape something for any reason just simply get a scrape blade, This is the way I would have taken his suggestion,

I had considered installing a tooth bar onto the FEL of my tractor, But thinking about how much I use it while back dragging would leave grooves cut into the ground, Lately I have level spots of Folks who are wanting to erect an above ground pool, and they prefer to have it as flat as possible,

so I still use the Box scrape for engaging the teeth to break up the ground and come back with the FEL to move the dirt:thumbsup:

 

[2manyrocks]

I have a box blade and a rear blade. My thoughts on this are:

The box blade is better for leveling because it contains the material in a box and the sides help it "float" across ups and downs with the material sort of filling the downs and the blade on the box cutting the hills more level.

Depending on the type of rear blade, some of them can be adjusted to an angle to cut or clean out ditches in a way that you really can't do very well with a box blade.

Having said that, I sometimes clean out my ditch with a V shaped plow point that I attach to my box blade in place of one of the rippers.

You can pick up a used dirt blade around here for $125 on up. I wouldn't fork out a lot of money for either a new blade or a new box at the dealer.

I've got a dirt blade, but it just sits nearly all the time.

 

[jenkinsph]

OK, I'm a newbee and about to purchase a compact tractor, either Kubota B series or New Holland Boomer.

Anyway, dealer is telling me not to get a box blade, but that I'll be much better off with a rear blade for smoothing and to use the tooth add on to the FEL.

Good idea or bad idea.

Purpose: I need to level out about 3 acres that is rolling (not dramatically) plus do some drainage / ditch work.

Tks for comments.

There are numerous tools that will aid you in this work, to get started with this a rearblade for the ditches and swales is a good choice. The toothbar and fel is a low cost route for light ripping of the soil too.

To make the ground smooth a landplane/grader with toothbar would work very well too. The landplane/grader is my first choice for smoothing and averaging out large areas for lawns.

 

[NewB2]

OK, I'm a newbee and about to purchase a compact tractor, either Kubota B series or New Holland Boomer.

Anyway, dealer is telling me not to get a box blade, but that I'll be much better off with a rear blade for smoothing and to use the tooth add on to the FEL.

Good idea or bad idea.

Purpose: I need to level out about 3 acres that is rolling (not dramatically) plus do some drainage / ditch work.

Tks for comments.

NewB2 here - Could not stand it, paid my last vehicle pymt and just bought a 2012 Kubota BX25 with FEL and BH and Box Blade. I have played around with everything until she told me it was getting late and I had to come in. I was wondering about the BXpanded FEL Tooth Rake. Would it do any better for clearing small stuff verses the box blade scarifs?

 

[PhysAssist]

NewB2 here - Could not stand it, paid my last vehicle pymt and just bought a 2012 Kubota BX25 with FEL and BH and Box Blade. I have played around with everything until she told me it was getting late and I had to come in. I was wondering about the BXpanded FEL Tooth Rake. Would it do any better for clearing small stuff verses the box blade scarifs?

We have the Pirhana toothbar and it been great for raking, loosening hardpack,general digging, stump and small tree removal, and my chaon on bucket forks fit over it, so its never off the bucket.

Thomas
No matter where you go; there you are...

 

[gwiley]

I built a box blade for my bobcat skid steer to use for leveling gravel driveway and cleared pasture and i really like it. It seems to do a good job of filling low spots without me having to spend much time worrying over them. I have used a rear blade on a tractor before and found that it took a lot more work to level the freshly cleared land.

 

[KYDan]

I have both and seldom use the scraper blade, as previously posted the box blade is a far better tool for scraping, transport, and leveling of dirt. For digging a toothbar is a must for the FEL bucket. If you want to back drag get a flat toothbar, they are nearly as stout as the standard, but on a small tractor with a 4' bucket they will work pretty good. larger than that you will break a lot of teeth off. I have both for my 6' bucket and hardly every use the flat bar as it is too fragile for a large bucket. Since you are talking about some acreage that you want to renovate a rollover box blade would be very useful and weight makes a huge difference in blade capability. Dirt Dog makes a heavy rollover blade, I have one and love it, the 6' RO box blade weighs in about 800 lbs. Research what you want to do now and in the future and what will you do with the tractor and implements once you have finished this project? Good luck.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Unless you have very loose sandy soil, you will need a box blade with scarifier teeth to loosen up the soil and drag it to lower areas. It is very hard for a small tractor to dig with a FEL effectively without dips and humps. It takes a lot of finesse with the FEl controls to keep it nice and level. You will either be scrapping along or digging in deep to the point of stalling they tractor.
Forget the straight blade and get a heavy duty box blade if you want to move dirt. With a little coordination, you can scarify and drag some dirt with the box, pick up a load with the FEL all at the same time doubling your dirt movement.

 

[troutsqueezer]

Box blade without question, it can move dirt from here to there much better than a scraper blade.

I have both BB and Land Pride scraper blade and also have a tooth bar. It is very handy to use the tooth bar to do some slight ripping while at the same time dropping the BB (or blade) to pick up and smooth the area all in one pass. As mentioned before, the blade is good for ditching alongside the roadways and is better for smoothing washboards when placed at an angle. Because it is not parallel to the washboarding, the blade does not drop into the washboard dips as the BB tends to do (depending on the BB setting).

To smooth the ground using a bucket w/teeth, just angle the bucket up and use the rear of the bucket, not the front.

 

[PhysAssist]

I built a box blade for my bobcat skid steer to use for leveling gravel driveway and cleared pasture and i really like it. It seems to do a good job of filling low spots without me having to spend much time worrying over them. I have used a rear blade on a tractor before and found that it took a lot more work to level the freshly cleared land.

I forgot to add that our Gannon Roll-Over Boxblade has been an absolute joy to work with, with a very short learning curve.

I think because the front and back-facing blades and scarifiers are deployed singly and without interference from each other, it is easier to get it to do what you want it to.

The scarifiers and front facing blade are great for loosening and then moving any substrate, whether dirt [clay, sand, hard pack], or [packed] gravel, and then rotating it to the back-facing blade and pulling forward smooths and levels any remaining uneveness.

We use our BXpanded Pirhana Toothbar in conjunction with the box blade to get a great finish to our grading efforts.

Thomas

 

[PapaPerk]

OK, I'm a newbee and about to purchase a compact tractor, either Kubota B series or New Holland Boomer.

Anyway, dealer is telling me not to get a box blade, but that I'll be much better off with a rear blade for smoothing and to use the tooth add on to the FEL.

Good idea or bad idea.

Purpose: I need to level out about 3 acres that is rolling (not dramatically) plus do some drainage / ditch work.

Tks for comments.

Get the box blade for the leveling. They are excellent attachments for leveling and moving dirt.

Get the tooth bar for the loader. Makes it dig in dirt easier. Don't get it if you need to smooth dirt... or you can just take it off.

The grader blade is handy for ditching driveways, etc because you can angle and tilt. I have both the box and blade. I use the box all the time. And the blade occassionally.

So... if you don't want to buy both.... buy the box and tooth bar first. If you still need a blade, then buy it. :thumbsup:

 

[Grant1]

I have both a front end loader with a tooth bar attached and a boxblade. I usually remove my toothbar when doing strictly dirt work as the toothbar does not allow the best use of the front bucket. The toothbar is most efficient for digging or moving brush for grts in the way when trying to grade or level dirt.